I’m a developer, born in France, currently exploring the United States

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About Mickaël

This was a very short trip to Southern California. Mainly we like to drive because the time we spend together in the car, we use it to talk. And we talk about everything, our future, the way we see things going, etc. I like to say that going on a road trip together is kind of a couple therapy. At least for us, that’s how it feels.

But now it’s time for me to go back north to San Francisco. And of course I have to leave the car to my wife. In case you don’t know, it’s very impractical to not have a car in Southern California. My wife can testify for it, growing up as a teenager in Riverside county and having to wait for the bus to go anywhere.

But anyway, this post is about a bus trip. The one I’m about to take to go home to San Francisco. I booked an Anaheim-Oakland from megabus.com and it was only $48. Cheaper than flying. I got my algorithms book to practice and a lot of movies to watch on my iPad. So I should be ok.

This is just to say that there are many ways to travel in the United States and they do not always involve taking a plane! Alternative ways of transportation can be cheaper and take you through a different journey.

It’s time to drive down to Los Angeles. This is something I often do, due to my wife’s family living in SoCal (Southern California). And what this means is time spent behind the wheel, together, talking about everything, what we like, what we want for the future, in short bonding! We both love road trips and this is always a good opportunity to enjoy California.

Well, except when you drive down the Interstate 5 which is notorious to be boring, and a very straight road. I believe you could drive down without turning your wheels once!

But hey, that’s also a good opportunity to stop on the road and enjoy an In-n-Out burger. Just for that, it’s worth the 6+ hours drive!

San Francisco is a great city to discover food from all around the world. Maybe it’s because there are a lot of communities that successfully immigrated in the United States, and brought with them their home cooking and variety of amazing spices, colorful dishes, etc.

Northern Indian food is, I believe, the most recognizable. While being a true neophyte in the domain (I know nothing), I appreciate the regular dishes: chicken tikka masala, naan, paneer, etc.

(Little Delhi has my recommendation for great Northern Indian food at an affordable price in downtown San Francisco.)

Northern Indian food can be described as spicy and creamy in my opinion. I absolutely love a good lamb tikka masala. And it’s only recently that I learnt: this is not the only Indian food you can find and appreciate! But I still have to experiment and learn more about Southern Indian food.

But San Francisco is a great city to get started and experiment with food from different countries. There are plenty: Vietnamese food, Filipino food, South Korean food, etc.

And even though I believe those recipes got westernized, in order to appeal to more people here in the United States, I still believe this is a great way to experiment and appreciate how diverse the food all around the world can be.

Back in France, I never really liked the idea of camping. For our summer holidays (yes, this is a concept in France, you actually have enough paid time off to go on vacations ha ha) my parents had the camping approach. As a teenager, some of my friends tried to get me to join them as they were chief scouts. But for some reasons*, I never joined them.

However, after spending some time in California, it felt like I was missing out on so many opportunities to discover more nature and landscapes. Because the West Coast of the United States of America really has some of the most beautiful sights I have had the opportunity to see.

And so we (my wife and I) went camping for our very first time! And that was a great first experience, with all the clichés associated with camping: firewood, s’mores, stargazing and much more!

That was a great experience and it gave us confidence to do it again, but this time for a much longer period. This led to the Great Canadian Roadtrip™, but this will need another, much more detailed post.

So, it’s never too late to actually try things and experiment a bit. It can help you discover a new passion or simply another way to travel and experience.

“Comme convenu” is the true story of a French couple who leave everything behind to move to California and work on their video game startup. What a dream! But not everything turns out as planned.

As you read through the story of Laurel and Adrien, you will discover a behind-the-scenes of what it’s like to get something started, and how it’s not necessarily the success story that happens to the Dropbox, Lyft and other (now big) technology startups in the Silicon Valley.

I read through the story with a huge interest and absolutely loved the drawings by Laurel. The story hits close to home too, especially regarding the Visa situation, the feeling of being trapped into working for the same company with no or very little opportunities to home.

I’d highly recommend you to have a go at reading their story. And worry not, just like every American movie, it has a happy ending!

Tomorrow, there will be a day of action for Net Neutrality. This topic has already been addressed many times, but here is a definition I find very clear:

Net neutrality is the idea that your internet service provider (ISP) — whether that’s Comcast, Verizon, or someone else — shouldn’t have the ability to pick and choose which service or content you can see, or make sites pay to have their content load quickly.

There is also a Stuff You Should Know episode about Net Neutrality, released today (June 11, 2017). All are very interesting resources that I’d recommend you to listen and/or read.

Why does Net Neutrality matter? To keep it short, it is more about setting the ground for a vision of the Net where any (legal) content is freely available to everyone connected, without discrimination by your Internet Service Provider (ISP) based on the origin of it.

Hence, my website should be equally served to you as Google is, without me (the content provider) having to go after the different ISPs and negotiate an open access to you, the consumer.

Net Neutrality also matters because it’s about giving equal chances for thriving businesses to reach out to their consumers. The “next big thing” would be unable to start and give a try to an uncharted business model if it’s killed in its infancy due to not being able to pay the ISPs for access.